Skip to main content
Know This Now

Know This Now, November 7, 2025: Latino Business Leaders: New Jersey, Virginia Elections a Wake-up Call to Republicans on Eroding Latino Support

By November 7, 2025November 10th, 2025No Comments

Latino Business Leaders: New Jersey, Virginia Elections a Wake-up Call to Republicans on Eroding Latino Support

This week’s election results in Virginia and New Jersey suggest a significant shift of Latino voters towards Democrats, amid growing concerns about inflation and deportation overreach. 

  • In  Passaic County, NJ with a 40%+ Latino population, President Trump won by 3 points in 2024 (first Republican to do so since 1992), but Democratic governor-elect Mikie Sherrill flipped the county and won it by 15 points.
  • Both Democratic governors-elect, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Sherrill in New Jersey, carried Latino voters by roughly 2-to-1 margins, according to exit polls.
  • Sherrill won all of New Jersey’s 10 counties where Latinos make up at least 18% of the population, expanding Democratic margins and flipping three counties that Trump had carried last year.
  • Dissatisfied rural voters in Virginia’s deep-red counties bolstered Spanberger’s win. She cut Republican margins and won 46% of rural votes, a 19-point jump from the Democrats performance in 2021.

Exit polls reviewed by ABIC Action show a decisive move among Latino voters favoring Democratic candidates — a notable shift from 2024, when Latinos broke for Republicans on the same issues. 

The election results are “a warning shot,” said the co-chairs of Comité de 100, a coalition of over 200 prominent Mexican American and Latino business leaders from across the U.S. The results reinforce that to win in 2026, both parties will need to address voter concerns about inflation and commonsense immigration solutions.

“Deportation overreach of productive workers who are paying taxes and have no criminal history is an underlying cause of escalating cost of living.”
-Comité de 100 Co-Chairs Massey Villareal, Chairman of PTG Taskforce, and Sam Sanchez, Third Coast Hospitality

“In 2024, Latinos flipped for President Trump and Republicans across the country…What we have seen so far is not progress and is not what we voted for — and it’s clear Latino voters agree,” said Comité de 100 Co-Chairs Massey Villareal Chairman of PTG Taskforce and Sam Sanchez, Third Coast Hospitality and National Restaurant Association Board member.

“If Republicans are serious about holding the majority, they must listen and deliver real solutions.”

The business leaders said prioritizing work permits for long-term undocumented immigrants contributing to our workforce, economy and communities would be the start, while commonsense proposals like the Dignity Act offer bipartisan solutions for border security and a dignified path to legal status for long-term immigrants.

Republican Lawmakers and Strategists Say Course Correction Needed on Immigration

“This is a wake-up call for the GOP,” U.S. Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27), who is chief sponsor of the Dignity Act and spoke recently at ABIC’s fly-in events, told NBC News. “We need economy, we need border security, but we have an issue with immigration.”

Karl Rove, Republican strategist and former advisor and deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush wrote in the Wall Street Journal this week:

Other lawmakers have also been expressing the need for changes on immigration policy:

“There are some things that we need to change and have a course correction with in regards to immigration,” said Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL-28).

“Everybody’s in favor of gang members, criminals, et cetera, being deported and all that. Not too many people are in favor of grandmothers and caregivers and all that you know falling under the same umbrella. That’s the course correction.”

More takeaways from the election run up and results, from ABIC Action:

–Exit polls show that inflation, cost of living, and the economy remain the top concerns for Latino voters. But many Latinos also voiced deep unease with President Trump’s handling of immigration and aggressive ICE tactics that alienated moderate, family-oriented voters.

-Just before the election, the majority of Latino voters (59%) said their rights and liberties feel less secure in a sweeping new survey of 3,000 registered Latino voters. That survey also echoed other recent AP-NORC polling, with 64% of Latinos saying they disapprove of Mr. Trump’s job performance.

As lawmakers and strategists continue to parse the results for cues on the path to 2026 elections, Tuesday’s results indicate economic improvements and a rethinking of the deportation strategy will be needed to gain Latino voters’ support and trust.

More News from the ABIC Network:

With Elder Care Industry Facing Labor Crisis, Employers Voices Matter More Than Ever
At the LeadingAge 2025 Annual Meeting, Luis Zaldivar, Project Director for ABIC joined with other labor experts to urge employers  to share stories of how restrictive immigration policies are worsening workforce shortages.

Zaldivar urged advocates to frame immigration as an economic necessity, noting that long-term care employers are “the real America first” because they serve the nation’s needs by caring for its aging population.

Kansas Livestock Association Talks Immigration Reform In D.C.

The Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) joined more than 200 congressional meetings in Washington, D.C., as part of the “Secure America’s Workforce” policy summit hosted by ABIC last month.

KLA representatives told lawmakers that Kansas cattle and livestock producers are facing severe labor shortages, particularly in rural areas, and that current visa programs fail to meet the year-round workforce needs of ranchers. Watch ABIC press conference highlights featuring KLA.

News Briefing

60 Minutes Interview: President Trump Says He is Committed to Ongoing ICE Raids

After noting President Trump’s success in securing the southern border, 60 Minutes interviewer Norah O’Donnell asked him about ICE raids in the following exchange:

@americanbic

#60minutes #immigrationreform #immigration

♬ original sound – ABIC

Norah O’Donnell: Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far?

President Trump: No. I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the– by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama.

In another exchange about the deportations, O’Donnell noted that many of those arrested and deported aren’t violent criminals, they are landscapers, nannies, construction workers, farm workers.

Norah O’Donnell: Is it your intent to deport people who do not have a criminal record?

President Trump: We have to start off with a policy, and the policy has to be you came into the country illegally, you’re gonna go out. However, you’ve also seen, you’re gonna go out. We’re gonna work with you, and you’re gonna come back into our country legally. Because we have a lotta good people. We have some great people.

President Trump Caps Refugee Admissions At Record Low – With Most To Be White South Africans

The Trump administration has slashed the U.S. refugee admissions cap to 7,500 for the coming year—a record low—down from Biden’s 125,000. Most slots will be prioritized for white South Africans, particularly Afrikaners, citing “humanitarian concerns” without providing further justification.

LA Times: Changes in Treatment of U-Visa and T-Visa Holders Could Affect 500,000

The Trump administration is accused of detaining and deporting immigrant survivors of crimes who are awaiting decisions on survivor-based visas like the U-Visa, which allows undocumented victims of serious crimes who assist law enforcement to stay in the U.S. legally, and the T-Visa, which protects survivors of human trafficking. The enforcement changes could affect nearly 500,000 people, LA Times reports, who are awaiting a decision on a pending application for survivor-based protections, the most common of which is the U-Visa.

Business and Industry News:

NYTimes and NPR: Immigration Enforcement Hitting Construction Industry Labor Shortages Hard

The NYTimes reports President Trump’s immigration crackdowns are straining the U.S. construction industry by worsening labor shortages.

The group endorsed Mr. Trump last year, but Bellaman said “There’s no doubt that that is problematic.”

Stricter immigration enforcement has made workers scarce and spooked crews, even those legally authorized to work.

Economists warn that the labor and tariff pressures could drag down the broader economy just as interest rates begin to fall. The National Association of Home Builders estimates the industry needs nearly 500,000 more workers to meet demand.

NPR reported foreign-born workers make up about one-third of the workforce and that surveys show 28% of firms have been directly affected, with crews leaving or missing work. Experts warn continued deportations could remove 1.4 million immigrant construction workers by 2028, with cascading job losses for U.S.-born workers.

Contractors say few Americans are willing to fill these roles, and they are calling for visa programs or legal pathways to stabilize the workforce.

Rurick Palomino, a U.S. citizen and Peruvian immigrant who came to the U.S. 25 years ago runs a construction firm dealing with the work shortages. He “echoes a common refrain in the construction industry — the solution, he says, is a visa program for immigrant workers.”

Washington Post: Some South Korea Firms Pulled Projects After Hyundai Immigration Raid

The September immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia rattled South Korean investors, leading several firms to pause or cancel U.S. projects despite assurances from the Trump administration. At least two companies have withdrawn and four extended pauses since the raid that saw hundreds of Koreans arrested.

“The Hyundai event still leaves a significant bad aftertaste that may be specifically impacting companies who are still scrambling to figure out their exact immigration compliance methodologies,” said Kurt Tong, a managing partner at the Asia Group.

Bloomberg: Lost Customers Flagged as Emerging Risk in Immigration Crackdown

Major U.S. companies are warning investors that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is starting to affect not just labor supply but also customer demand, lending, and real estate markets.

Firms including T-Mobile, Equity Residential, DaVita, and M&T Bank say tighter immigration enforcement and visa restrictions are shrinking customer bases and slowing growth, reducing both the workforce and consumer spending power.

Forbes: Latino Entrepreneurship Declines As ICE Raids Intensify
ICE raids under “Operation Midway Blitz” are causing a sharp decline in Latino entrepreneurship, especially in Chicago and its suburbs. Business owners report losing workers and customers due to fear of enforcement, forcing layoffs and closures.

Communities like Little Village, which generates over $1 billion annually from Latino-owned businesses, are seeing severe economic fallout. The raids threaten to reverse years of growth and could cut local tax revenue and consumer spending across the region.

Perspectives:

Bloomberg: State Street CEO Labels Trump Immigration Policy ‘Anti- Growth”

“It’s not just illegal immigration that’s being stopped, but legal immigration, including the kind of immigration that’s really driven a lot of growth, a lot of prosperity, a lot of company formation in the U.S.,” State Street Corp. CEO Ronald O’Hanley said during a recent summit in Hong Kong. State Street Corporation is a major American financial services and bank holding company based in Boston.

New York Post Editorial: Ending Automatic Grace Period For Work Permit Renewals Will Hurt Law-Abiding Immigrants And Businesses

The New York Post Editorial Board criticizes the DHS decision to eliminate the automatic grace period for work permit renewals, calling it a move that will cause “utter, needless chaos.”

Under the new rule, legal immigrants awaiting renewal of their work authorization will no longer be allowed to keep working while their applications are processed. With an estimated 165,000-case backlog, the change is expected to leave many law-abiding immigrants and their employers in crisis.

Enforcement News:

ICE Plans Cash Rewards for Private Bounty Hunters to Locate and Track Immigrants

ICE is considering the use of private bounty hunters to locate immigrants across the country.

ICE is “exploring an incentive based pricing structure” to encourage quick results, with “monetary bonuses” paid out based on performance. ICE contractors will be given authority to surveil and confirm the home or work addresses of tens of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. and then report their locations back to the government.

Watch:  Day care worker arrested by ICE in front of children in Chicago

Watch: How Elite Agents Use High-Risk Military Tactics on Civilians in Chicago

Get Involved

  1. Join one of ABIC’s Councils of 100 and let your voice be heard with your peers – sign up here. The Council of 100 is a coalition of top business leaders working to advance common-sense workforce solutions.
  2. Share your story: If your business is interested in engaging with the press as part of ABIC or amplifying your story on social media, take this quick survey to let us know your preferences. 
  3. We’re hiring! ABIC is looking for a National Field Director to help lead our national campaigns. Learn more and apply here.

Always available: ABIC Employer Resources Folder

ABIC in the news. . . 

View all recent coverage here